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Prize-winning metal mesh in the Palace of Versailles

The international architecture platform ArchDaily has presented the Building of the Year Award for the eighth time: one of just sixteen winners is GKD – GEBR. KUFFERATH AG. The company was recognized for the renovation of Pavillon Dufour at the Palace of Versailles, for which the French star architect Dominique Perrault used golden Escale metal mesh.

Founded in 2008, ArchDaily is the world’s busiest architectural platform with seven million readers per month. Out of more than 3,000 submitted projects, 75,000 users voted for the GKD metal mesh in Pavillon Dufour. In the Best Applied Product category, GKD picked up the Building of the Year 2017 award for the latest successful project by Dominique Perrault. For the renovation of Pavillon Dufour, the renowned architect once again used Escale mesh from GKD for the ceilings and walls on the first floor. Based on a design by Gaëlle Lauriot-Prévost he thus created the golden ceiling in the entrance foyer, which floats above the entire room like a gigantic canopy with waves of different sizes. He had aluminum rods of varying lengths (anodized in three different shades of gold) randomly inserted into the spiraling, matt-golden flat wires. In doing so, he gave the fabric a particularly sculptural effect. The supple and flexible metal mesh was also used over wide areas in the rest of the interior design, with metal fabric wall hangings underlining the subtle reference to the historic décor of the Palace of Versailles. A staircase grants visitors access from the foyer to the newly created cellar vault, where they can find the cloakrooms, toilets, lockers and also the museum shop. From here, a stone staircase takes them to the open-air Cour des Princes while panels of golden-anodized metal mesh with integrated lights draped like banners hover above the heads of the visitors. The Building of the Year2017 award honors the renovation of the famous building as one of the best architectural projects worldwide.